Bacteriophage therapy
becoming more popular, along with a comparatively high public awareness of AMR and an increasingly positive attitude towards phage therapy given from both the scientific community behind phage research and the public (Fig. 6). It is true that, as the number of research studies on phages conducted in recent years increases, people from both the scientific and commercial communities have been exhibiting a much stronger interest in studying and developing phages than ever before. The current academic environment for phage studies and phage research is becoming increasingly favourable, and a decent collaboration between the research and clinical sectors of phage therapy is expected. As mentioned by a medical microbiology PhD student working closely with phages: ‘We are confident that the research side is academically capable of supporting the clinical side. ’ 67 Certainly, we can expect much more from global phage research in the coming years as what we have seen in the history of phage therapy, particularly in recent decades: traditional phage therapy against antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, phage-based cancer therapy, CRISPR-Cas gene therapy, and even the exploitation of phage-derived proteins as therapeutic tools (the therapeutic use of endolysins against bacteria with AMR). 68
Figure 6
The Public’s Awareness of Antibiotic Resistance and Willingness to Receive Traditional Phage Therapy and Phage -Based Cancer Therapy
(a)
Note. The data presented in this figure were obtained from a survey distributed in south London areas (estimated postcode locations: SE4, SE5, SE6, SE13, SE21, SE22, SE23, SE24, SE26, SE27, BR3, and CR7) from 2 nd January 2021 to 5 th January 2021 with 553 valid responses. An introduction to phage therapy was given to all respondents. (a) is a boxplot showing the public’s perceived severity of the current situation of antibiotic resistance, with 0 being the least severe and 10 being the most severe. Approximately 50% of all respondents provided a rating between 5 and 8 with an average of 7, indicating a relatively high public awareness of AMR. (b) is a pie chart presenting the public’s willingness to receive phage -based cancer therapy (if effective and safe, more effective than traditional approaches). 401 out of 553 (72.5%) respondents answered ‘definitely yes’, and 108 (19.5%) respondents chose ‘somehow likely’, totalling a proportion
(b)
of 92.0% of the respondents responding positively to this question. (c) is a bar chart showing the public’s willingness to receive traditional phage therapy against superbug infections. The majority of respondents (438 out of 553, 79.2%) answered ‘definitely yes’ for this question, and 91 out of 553 (16.4%) respondents responded ‘somehow likely’, giving a total percentage of 95.7% respondents with positive responses. It could be concluded that people in the underlying population are generally more willing to receive traditional phage therapy if they
67 Astudillo Skliarova 2021. 68 Balfour 2020; Zhao et al. 2020.
268
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator